hello, everyone. I am new to pain research. Nowadays, I plan to use carrageenan-induced pain models—however, 3% carrageenan in 0.9% NaCl became a gel state after sterilization at 121℃, 20min, and it seems to be impossible to inject. I just want to know how to treat the carrageenan in this model.
Hello Jefferey,
In our lab, we use animal models of carrageenan and while preparing carrageenan we do not perform sterilization at high temperatures. The carrageenan vial is only opened in a laminar flow hood, and is dissolved in sterile saline. While it becomes a thicker solution, it does not gelify as we use non-gelifying λ-Carrageenan (Sigma 22049).
Hope it helps!
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Thank you both for this discussion. I think @diianamarina should resolve things for you @Jeffery. Please let us know how things go. Also, definitely reach out to @tberta and @liz, since you’re all neighbors there at Cincy. They are outstanding pain researchers and nearly everything I know I learned from @tberta 
Thank you so much for your valuable advice @diianamarina. It helped me resolve it. I used the wrong carrageen(sigma C1013), as the papers I read did not provide the details. I will try λ-Carrageenan next. I am truly grateful for your suggestion.
Thank you, Alex. @diianamarina truly helped me resolve the problem. Your kindness helped a lot, too. I will definitely reach out to tberta and liz, as I really have a lot of questions in this field. Thank you for your recommendation of these outstanding researchers.
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